Shadowsinger

Chapter Fifteen

Teigen was escorted to a room that looked suspiciously like an interrogation room, although it was missing the classic one-way mirror. Lydia was sitting on one side of the table with her hands clasped in front of her, a genuine smile on her face, but Teigen had sat in on enough interrogations for extra protection to know how fast that could change into anger.

"I apologize for the short notice, but we have recently received information that one of the Fairchild girls is in possession of the mortal cup."

Teigen frowned for a second before her face smoothed out. Meliorn, Isabelle's Seelie boyfriend must have been the informant. She also knew that they could not lie. Sure they could lie by exploiting every loophole available, playing mind game after mind game until you ended up telling them what they wanted, but if you phrased the questions right, they would have no choice in answering and Teigen had no doubt that most, if not all, shadowhunters were trained in asking the right questions.

"I don't have all of the information so I don't know whether my answers will be the truth or not, but what I do know is that Clary had the cup. What she did with it, I only have half-baked ideas and speculations."

Lydia nodded and gestured for Teigen to continue. "Just tell me all you know. I'm sure that at least one of them must be close and we can work from there."

"The last time we spoke, Clary didn't have the cup yet, but she knew where it was so I can only believe that she has gained possession of it at some point. Knowing the Lightwood siblings, they would have her give it to the head or heads of the institute, but at that point, you had not yet arrived so that duty would have fallen with Maryse and Robert."

Lydia opened her mouth, but Teigen shook her head, not finished yet. "That being said, I do not know where they put it, but knowing them, they would avoid any action that could possibly be used against them if their loyalty to the Clave was being questioned."

Lydia sighed out through her nose. "Meliorn said that one of the Fairchild girls has the cup, but since you have not been in contact with it, Clarissa must have it. Unfortunately, she is not here which means I have to conduct a room search."

Teigen nodded, she already knew that a room search was never out of the realm of possibility for a future course of action.

"That being said, to respect Clarissa's privacy, I will be choosing the ones conducting the search."

Teigen nodded gratefully. "I know. Is there anything else you need before I leave?"

Lydia smiled. "The only thing I ask is that you stay inside the Institute. If you do need to leave, please come to me and I will provide an escort. Due to the risk of Valentine, I cannot risk you being captured and used to find the cup or as bait for your sister who is the most likely person to have the cup."

Teigen nodded once again. Standing up from the chair, she shook Lydia's hand and waited for the door to be opened, heading out and to the ops center in the process.

Isabelle, Jace, and Alec were by the monitors, watching as Meliorn was brought back into the room Teigen had just exited.

"I really hope that the cup, and by extension Clary is safe."

All three of them looked up, some unidentifiable emotion in Alec's eyes when they looked at each other before Teigen directed her attention to Jace. "She's safe, so is the cup."

"So where is she?" They all looked guiltily at each other before Alec turned back to her, his eyes glimmering in sympathy. "So you know how we found how Simon had been turning into a vampire when we went to your mother's apartment?"

Teigen's eyes closed, a tear slipping out before she could brush it away.

She opened her eyes to find Alec much closer than before, concern swimming in his beautiful blue eyes. Pushing that strange thought away, she looked up and choked out a 'how?'

"After the werewolves, he got a lot worse and went to the vampire lair craving the vampire blood. Camille was there and he drank more of her blood. And then she killed him."

Teigen's eyes closed and more tears slipped out. She turned around and pressed her palm to her mouth, trying to contain her sob.

Two arms turned her around and pulled her into a firmly muscled chest, arms encircling her body. "Do you want me to keep going?"

"Please, I need to know-" she trailed off, but he knew what she meant. "Raphael brought his fledgling body here and after I left to make sure no one went down into the basement, but after that Jace and Clary went to his mother's house to make the decision whether or not to kill him or allow him to emerge as a vampire. From what I can tell, she chose to resurrect him, so she went to a graveyard with Jace and Raphael. He freaked out when he realized he was a vampire and ran off, but Jace had just been told of the forsaken attack, so she went to the jade wolf while Jace came back here."

Teigen pulled back, wiping away her tears as the three watched concerned. "Do we know where she is now?"

Jace and Isabelle exchanged glances but following Alec's lead and shaking their heads. She peered at them suspiciously but decided to let it go when Alec stepped back.

They all heard the series of footsteps and turned to see Lydia and a contingent of guards escorting the Seelie to the elevators. "Where are you taking him?"

Lydia moved her gaze to regard Isabelle's outburst cooly. "To a holding cell. And a guard unit will transport him to the Silent Brothers."

"You can't do that!"

Alec faced his sister, his face hardening. "It's not our decision, Isabelle. The Clave made the order."

Jace crossed his arms over his chest. "That could be a death sentence to a Downworlder."

Isabelle moved forward but Teigen grabbed her arm and gently pulled her backwards."Are you trying to start a war with them? Meliorn's told you everything he knows."

Lydia glanced at Teigen. "You don't know that. Maybe we haven't asked the right questions. Seelies often skirt the truth. If he has information on another terrorist attack, it is our responsibility to get it."

Isabelle shook Teigen's hand off of her arm. "Let me talk to him."

"That wasn't exactly helpful in the past." Lydia was like ice, cold and deadly.

"But he may not know anything." Jace turned to his parabatai. "Alec, this is going too far."

Alec gazed at him cooly, moving over to where Lydia was standing. "We don't have a choice."

Lydia looked over at Teigen. "Miss Fairchild, if you could accompany us to my office, your assigned escort is waiting." Isabelle and Jace watched in stunned but determined silence as they moved out of sight.

"You have an escort?" Teigen glanced at Alec who had lagged behind to talk with her. Lydia was still walking forward, but her shoulders were slightly curled inward.

"It's just a precaution. It's not that big of a deal unless they invade my privacy. Unless Lydia is a lying snake with no regard for anyone under her command, which I highly doubt because she hasn't given me a reason to, I trust that it won't be too much trouble."

Alec opened his mouth but hesitated, looking ahead at Lydia who was still within earshot. Thinking better of whatever he wanted to say, he remained silent as they headed towards Lydia's office.

Surprise surprise, I have a surprising amount of motivation since we are almost at the end of season one (and coincidentally book one) so for the next few days, I should have more chapters up. Please comment or vote! See you next chapter.